Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/155

 king and many of the nobility went away to live in London, which, as there was little trade, left Scotland in a very poor condition; and it was a long time, indeed, not before the people had experienced the great benefits of British trade and commerce, that they began to feel as a part of the English nation; but now that the English and Scots have become like one people, it is certainly much happier and better for both.

2. James had not been king two years, when a conspiracy was formed against the government, called the Gunpowder Plot. I cannot tell you for certain by whom it was contrived, but it was a wicked scheme to blow up the houses of parliament, when the king, and most of the lords and commons were there assembled; but, happily, it was discovered a short time before the meeting of parliament, and all the greatest men in the country were saved from a dreadful death.

3. James the First was not a good king, for he had a mistaken notion that a king ought to do whatever he liked; and that, if he wanted money he had a right to make new taxes, without the consent of parliament, and, in fact, he thought it unnecessary to have any parliament at all, and he taught his son Charles to be of the same opinion, which was the cause of that